Berkshire Hathaway Posts Record Profit
Sat March 8, 2003 09:44 AM ET
OMAHA, Neb. (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the holding company run by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, reported its highest ever annual profit on Saturday, helped by rising insurance rates and better returns from its expanding stable of old-economy companies.
Berkshire BRKa.N , based in Buffett's home town of Omaha, Nebraska, reported a profit of $4.286 billion, or $2,795 a share, for 2002. That compared with $795 million, or $521 a share, for 2001, when Berkshire put aside more than $2 billion to pay World Trade Center insurance claims.
Revenue rose 10 percent to a record $42.3 billion.
"In all respects, 2002 was a banner year," Buffett said in his annual report to shareholders.
The sharp rise in profit was helped by higher insurance and reinsurance rates charged by Berkshire units, partly as a reaction to the destruction of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Profit from insurance was higher than it might have been in a "normal" year, Buffett said, as there was no large insured catastrophe during the year.
Berkshire also saw better returns from its growing patchwork of old-economy operations, ranging from candy and jewelry to bricks and carpet.
Berkshire's stock, which has not been split in Buffett's 38 years in charge of the firm, closed at $64,800 a share on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. |
